After getting swept against Illinois last weekend, No. 8 Cyclone Hockey’s woes continued this weekend at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena, getting swept by No. 9 Jamestown by losing both games 4-2. 

Iowa State hosted the No. 9 Jamestown Jimmies this past weekend for the first time this year. The two teams faced each other once before this season in Jamestown, North Dakota, where Iowa State was defeated 4-2.

It was a heavy battle between the two closely-matched teams, which are similar defensively, in size and how hard they work along the boards.

The series, which included 20 penalties, came down to which team was better on the power play. 

This isn’t the first slump of the season

This weekend’s losses mark the start of another significant losing streak for the Cyclones. The team has now lost five straight games in the month of January and is looking for answers to turn around its slump. 

This isn’t the first slump for the Cyclones. They faced a similar rough stretch in November, when they held a 1-6 record.

The Cyclones bounced back from that losing stretch and will hope for a similar turnaround next weekend when they host a challenging No. 5 Robert Morris.

What isn’t working? 

The inability to score on a surplus of shots on goal and taking poor penalties have been problems for Cyclone Hockey.

Goal scoring continues to be an issue as the Cyclones consistently outshoot their opponents by a wide margin.

“We’re obviously not converting on shots, so it’s been an issue,” coach Jason Fairman said. “Last year, we were actually pretty good at that, and the prior two seasons we had to work for all of our goals.”

While shot placement can be improved, driving to the net is a solution to getting those gritty goals during games.

“Two goals were off of rebounds,” Fairman said. “We tell the guys you have to drive to the net.”

In the past four games, penalties have been a big factor. The Cyclones continue to take unnecessary penalties that cost them time to generate any offense.

“Anytime you have a penalty, it takes a long time to get the momentum back,” Fairman said. “So it was unfortunate that we had those momentum changes. We took some untimely penalties, we had four penalties and they had one.”

But the Cyclones still had opportunities on the man advantage, which has made the penalty kill that much more crucial.

The penalty kill has been in the 80 to 90 percent range so far this season, but that hasn’t been the case to start the second semester.

“At the end of the day, it came down to special teams,” Nick Sandy said. “And that’s the difference in games like that. It’s frustrating to not score on the power play. It seems like every time the other team’s on the power play they’re getting one.”

How can they fix it? 

Mental frustration will be the biggest thing to overcome for the Cyclones. 

“There’s not a lot of confidence in the room, we just don’t seem to be getting the power play like we were earlier in the year, and that’s a byproduct of being confident,” Sandy said. “When you’re confident, things are going to happen for you that are maybe considered lucky, but right now it’s the exact opposite.”

The Cyclones show on ice and paper that they dominate games on almost every other aspect other than scoring.

That is posing to be the most frustrating part for the guys around the locker room.

“It’s not that we aren’t trying, it’s not an effort thing,” Sandy said. “We don’t have a whole lot of confidence, and it seems like every bounce is going the wrong way for us.”

Senior defenseman Eero Helanto knows the Cyclone Hockey team well and sees a turnaround in the near future for his teammates.

“I see us as a team that’s one of the best teams in the country,” Helanto said. “We just have to keep working.”

Cyclones still finding success offensively and defensively

The Cyclones have no issue creating offense. In fact, they normally have puck possession under their belt in every game and always outshoot their opponent.

On the other side, their defense continues to be strong 5-on-5 as they significantly prevent scoring opportunities from their opponent.

“Territorially, we had the advantage,” Fairman said. “I thought we had them on their heels a lot of the time. But then we’d have a penalty and it would change the momentum.”